Island of Lost Girls

March 3, 2008
At the start of McMahon's haunting second novel (after Promise Not to Tell
), recent college grad Rhonda Farr witnesses a child abduction in front of a convenience store in Pike's Crossing, Vt. Ernestine “Ernie” Florucci willingly leaves her mother's car because her six-foot-tall abductor is wearing a rabbit suit. Rhonda remembers her best friend Lizzy's father entertaining her and Lizzy in a rabbit costume in 1993, and vanishing soon after. Three years later, Lizzy disappeared en route to high school. Guilt over her inability to stop Ernie's abduction spurs Rhonda to join the search for the girl. She recalls the summer that Lizzy's older brother, Peter, had them all perform Peter Pan
, which was a great success, but there were dark secrets beneath the makeshift stage. McMahon expertly shifts between pivotal events in the past and present-day action, building tension to a resolution both poignant and shattering.

March 15, 2008
As in her assured debut novel, Promise Not to Tell (2007), McMahon offers a moving if bittersweet portrait of childhood. When a person dressed up in a rabbit costume abducts a little girl out of her car, the lone witness, Rhonda, is too stunned to act. As thesmall ruraltown mobilizes a search for the missing child, Rhonda, reeling with guilt, is reminded of another girl who went missingher closest friend from childhood, Lizzy.Joyful memories of theiryouth spent putting on plays and exploring the woods alternate with darker moments: losing the love of her life, Lizzys brother, Peter, and the year an increasingly disheveled and moody Lizzystopped talking to her or anyone else. Past and present merge as Rhonda closes in on the costumed abductor and also on the dark family secrets that tore theirperfect childhood apart. McMahon spends a good deal of time setting the stage; however, once the pieces ofthe intricate plot are in place, readers will be hooked onboth the mystery element and the coming-of-age aspects of this atmospheric novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)